Monday, October 5, 2026

Battle Royal [Short Story Review]

"Battle Royal" is a short story written by Ralph Ellison. It was published as a part of a greater novel called "Invisible Man" in 1952.

There are some aspects about this story I don't really want to get into in this blog. The story has a lot to do with racism and such, and I just don't want to bother with the topic. Instead, I want to talk about what this story does really well.

Fight scenes are hard. You have to carry along how the fight happens without taking too long on any given moment. It has to move quickly without losing all of the violent detail. "Battle Royal" does this really well and for a surprising amount of time.

It also isn't just a fight between two people. It is a close-quarters free-for-all with some extra trickery mixed in, such as money thrown into the arena and parts of the floor being electrified. It is a crazy read, and I have to commend the author for doing such a good job at portraying a scene that might baffle other writers.

That is what is good about this story, and given the title, that is all that really needed to be good. That said, however, I did not know this was a chapter out of a greater novel when I read it. I have no interest in the novel itself. I can only recommend this to people who might be interested in learning about writing crazy fighting scenes. Other than that, I don't have much more to say.

This blog was written on August 29, 2026.

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